Chapter XI.

The objection has been made, that the words of St. John,
“The Spirit is God,” are to be referred to God the Father;
since Christ afterwards declares that God is to be worshipped in Spirit
and in truth. The answer is, first, that by the word Spirit is
sometimes meant spiritual grace; next, it is shown that, if they insist
that the Person of the Holy Spirit is signified by the words “in
Spirit,” and therefore deny that adoration is due to Him, the
argument tells equally against the Son; and since numberless passages
prove that He is to be worshipped, we understand from this that the
same rule is to be laid down as regards the Spirit. Why are we
commanded to fall down before His footstool? Because by this is
signified the Lord’s Body, and as the Spirit was the Maker of
this, it follows that He is to be worshipped, and yet it does not
accordingly follow that Mary is to be worshipped. Therefore the
worship of the Spirit is not done away with, but His union with the
Father is expressed, when it is said that the Father is to be
worshipped in Spirit, and this point is supported by similar
expressions.

69. But perhaps
reference may be made to the fact that in a later passage of the same
book, the Lord again said that God is Spirit, but spoke of God the
Father. For you have this passage in the Gospel: “The
hour now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in
Spirit and truth, for such also doth the Father seek. God is
Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in Spirit and
truth.”13201320 S. John iv. 23, 24. By this
passage you wish not only to deny the divinity of the Holy Spirit, but
also, from God being worshipped in Spirit, deduce a subjection of the
Spirit.

70. To which point I will briefly answer
that Spirit is often put for the grace of the Spirit, as the Apostle
also said: “For the Spirit Himself intercedeth for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered;”13211321Rom. viii. 26.
that is, the grace of the Spirit, unless perchance you have been able
to hear the groanings of the Holy Spirit. Therefore here too God
is worshipped, not in the wickedness of the heart, but in the grace of
the Spirit. “For into a malicious soul wisdom does not
enter,”13221322Wisd. i. 4. because
“no one can call Jesus Lord but in the Holy
Spirit.”132313231 Cor. xii. 3. And
immediately he adds: “Now there are diversities of
gifts.”132413241 Cor. xii. 4.

71. Now this cannot pertain to the fulness, nor to
the dividing of the Spirit; for neither does the mind of man grasp His
fulness, nor is He divided into any portions of Himself; but He pours
into [the soul] the gift of spiritual grace, in which God is worshipped
as He is also worshipped in truth, for no one worships Him except he
who drinks in the truth of His Godhead with pious affection. And
he certainly does not apprehend Christ as it were personally, nor the
Holy Spirit personally.

72. Or if you think that this is said as it were
personally of Christ and of the Spirit, then God is worshipped in truth
in like manner as He is worshipped in Spirit. There is therefore
either a like subjection, which God forbid that you should believe, and
the Son is not worshipped; or, which is true, there is a like grace of
Unity, and the Spirit is worshipped.

73. Let us then here draw our inferences and
put an end to the impious questionings of the Arians. For if they
say that the Spirit is therefore not to be worshipped because God is
worshipped in Spirit, let them then say that the Truth is not to be
worshipped, because God is worshipped in truth. For although
there be many truths, since it is written: “Truths are
minished from the sons of men;”13251325Ps. xii. [xi.]
1.
yet they are given by the Divine Truth, which is Christ, Who
says: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the
Life.”13261326 S. John xiv. 6. If
therefore they understand the truth in this passage from custom, let
them also understand the grace of the Spirit, and there is no
stumbling; or if they receive Christ as the Truth, let them deny that
He is to be worshipped.

74. But they are refuted by the acts of the
pious, and by the course of the Scriptures. For Mary worshipped
Christ, and therefore is appointed to be the messenger of the
Resurrection to the apostles,13271327 S. John xx. 17, 18. loosening the
hereditary bond, and the huge offence of womankind. For this the
Lord wrought mystically, “that where sin had exceedingly
abounded, grace might more exceedingly abound.”13281328Rom. v. 20. And rightly is a woman appointed
[as messenger] to men; that she who first had brought the message of
sin to man should first bring the message of the grace of the
Lord.

75. And the apostles worshipped; and
therefore they who bore the testimony of the faith received authority
as to the faith. And the angels worshipped, of whom it is
written: “And let all His angels worship
Him.”13291329Heb. i. 6.

76. But they worship not only His Godhead
but also His Footstool, as it is written: “And worship His
footstool, for it is holy.”13301330Ps. xcix.
[xcviii.] 5. Or if
they deny that in Christ the mysteries also of His Incarnation are to
be worshipped,
146in
which we observe as it were certain express traces of His Godhead, and
certain ways of the Heavenly Word; let them read that even the apostles
worshipped Him when He rose again in the glory of His Flesh.13311331 S. Matt. xxviii. 17.

77. Therefore if it do not at all detract
from Christ, that God is worshipped in Christ, for Christ too is
worshipped;13321332 St. Ambrose here argues against
Apollinarianism, who separated the two natures in Christ and taught
that He should not be adored except in His Godhead, giving to the
orthodox the nickname of ἀνθρωπολάτραι.
The Apollinarians held that Christ was Θεὸς
σαρκοφόρος,
as Nestorians made Him ἄνθρωπος
Θεοφόρος, instead of
the proper Θεάνθρωπος.
Apollinaris said Christ is οὔτε
ἄνθρωπος
ἅπλος, οὔτε
Θεὸς, ἀλλὰ
Θεοῦ καὶ
ἀνθρώπου
μίξις. He denied the
complete human nature of our Lord, saying that the Logos supplied the
place of the anima rationalis. This stunted humanity could
not be accepted by the Church, as it would involve a merely partial
redemption. Christ must be a perfect man, in order to be a
perfect Redeemer. The heresy was opposed by St.
Athanasius, St. Basil, and others, condemned in synods at Alexandria
362, Rome 373 and probably 382, Antioch 378 or 379, and decisively at
Constantinople in the second œcumenical council. See
Dict. Chr. Biog.; Blunt, Dict. of Sects, etc.; Hefele on
Council of Constantinople; St. Gregory of Nazianzus’ Letters on
the Apollinarian controversy in this series, p. 437 ff. it certainly
also detracts nothing from the Spirit that God is worshipped in the
Spirit, for the Spirit also is worshipped, as the Apostle has
said: “We serve the Spirit of God,”13331333Phil. iii. 3. for he who serves worships also, as it
is said in an earlier passage: “Thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”13341334Deut. vi. 13.

78. But lest any one should perchance seem
to elude the instance we have adduced, let us consider in what manner
that which the prophet says, “Worship His Footstool,”
appears to refer to the mystery of the divine Incarnation, for we must
not estimate the footstool from the custom of men. For neither
has God a body, neither is He other than beyond measure, that we should
think a footstool was laid down as a support for His feet. And we
read that nothing besides God is to be worshipped, for it is written:
“Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt
thou serve.” How, then, should the prophet, brought up
under the Law, and instructed in the Law, give a precept against the
Law? The question, then, is not unimportant, and so let us more
diligently consider what the footstool is. For we read
elsewhere: “The heaven is My throne, and the earth the
footstool of My feet.”13351335Isa. lxvi. 1. But the
earth is not to be worshipped by us, for it is a creature of
God.

79. Let us, however, see whether the prophet
does not say that that earth is to be worshipped which the Lord Jesus
took upon Him in assuming flesh. And so, by footstool is
understood earth, but by the earth the Flesh of Christ, which we this
day also adore13361336 There can
be no doubt that St. Ambrose held what is known as the Real Presence in
the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and is here asserting the custom of his
day, viz., that Christ was worshipped as indivisibly God and Man in
that Sacrament. Similar expressions are to be found in other
Fathers, and in St. Ambrose elsewhere; e.g. De Fide, V.
10; De Mysteriis, §§ 52–54, 58. Bishop
Andrewes, formerly of Winchester (ob. a.d.
1626), refers to St. Ambrose as follows: “Nos vero et in
Mysteriis Carnem Christi adoramus cum Ambrosio, et non id, sed eum qui
super altare colitur. Nec Carnem manducamus quin adoremus prius
cum Augustino.…El Sacramentum tamen nulli
adoremus.” Resp. ad Bellarmin, p.
195. in the
mysteries, and which the apostles, as we said above, adored in the Lord
Jesus; for Christ is not divided but is one; nor, when He is adored as
the Son of God, is He denied to have been born of the Virgin.
Since, then, the mystery of the Incarnation is to be adored, and the
Incarnation is the work of the Spirit, as it is written, “The
Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall
overshadow thee, and that Holy Thing Which shall be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God,”13371337 S. Luke i. 35. without
doubt the Holy Spirit also is to be adored, since He Who according to
the flesh was born of the Holy Spirit is adored.

80. And let no one divert this to the Virgin Mary;
Mary was the temple of God, not the God of the temple. And
therefore He alone is to be worshipped Who was working in His
temple.

81. It makes, then, nothing against our argument
that God is worshipped in Spirit, for the Spirit also is
worshipped. Although if we consider the words themselves, what
else ought we to understand in the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, but the unity of the same power. For what is “must
worship in Spirit and in truth”? If, however, you do not
refer this to the grace of the Spirit, nor the true faith of
conscience; but, as we said, personally (if indeed this word person is
fit to express the Divine Majesty), you must take it of Christ and of
the Spirit.

82. What means, then, the Father is
worshipped in Christ, except that the Father is in Christ, and the
Father speaks in Christ, and the Father abides in Christ. Not,
indeed, as a body in a body, for God is not a body; nor as a confused
mixture [confusus in confuso], but as the true in the true, God
in God, Light in Light; as the eternal Father in the co-eternal
Son. So not an ingrafting of a body is meant, but unity of
power. Therefore, by unity of power, Christ is jointly worshipped
in the Father when God the Father is worshipped in Christ. In
like manner, then, by unity of the same power
147the Spirit is jointly worshipped in God, when
God is worshipped in the Spirit.

83. Let us investigate the force of that
word and expression more diligently, and deduce its proper meaning from
other passages. “Thou hast,” it is said, “made
them all in wisdom.”13381338Ps. civ.
[ciii.] 24. Do we
here understand that Wisdom was without a share in the things that were
made? But “all things were made by Him.”13391339 S. John i. 3. And David says: “By
the Word of the Lord were the heavens established.”13401340Ps. xxxiii.
[xxxii.] 6. So, then, he himself who calls the
Son of God the maker even of heavenly things, has also plainly said
that all things were made in the Son, that in the renewal of His works
He might by no means separate the Son from the Father, but unite Him to
the Father.

84. Paul, too, says: “For in Him
were all things created in the heavens and in the earth, visible and
invisible.”13411341Col. i. 16. Does he,
then, when he says, “in Him,” deny that they were made
through Him? Certainly he did not deny but affirmed it. And
further he says in another place: “One Lord Jesus, through
Whom are all things.”134213421 Cor. viii. 6. In
saying, then, “through Him,” has he denied that all things
were made in Him, through Whom he says that all things exist?
These words, “in Him” and “with Him,” have this
force, that by them is understood one and like in all respects, not
contrary. Which he also made clear farther on, saying:
“All things have been created through Him and in
Him;”13431343Col. i. 16. for, as we
said above, Scripture witnesses that these three expressions,
“with Him,” and “through Him,” and “in
Him,” are equivalent in Christ.13441344 Bk. II. 8, 9. For you read that all things were
made through Him and in Him.

85. Learn also that the Father was with Him,
and He with the Father, when all things were being made. Wisdom
says: “When He was preparing the heavens I was with Him,
when He was making the fountains of waters.”13451345Prov. viii. 27. And in the Old Testament the
Father, by saying, “Let Us make,”13461346Gen. i. 26. showed that the Son was to be worshipped
with Himself as the Maker of all things. As, then, those things
are said to have been created in the Son, of which the Son is received
as the Creator; so, too, when God is said to be worshipped in truth by
the proper meaning of the word itself often expressed after the same
manner it ought to be understood, that the Son too is worshipped.
So in like manner is the Spirit also worshipped because God is
worshipped in Spirit. Therefore the Father is worshipped both
with the Son and with the Spirit, because the Trinity is
worshipped.

1332 St. Ambrose here argues against
Apollinarianism, who separated the two natures in Christ and taught
that He should not be adored except in His Godhead, giving to the
orthodox the nickname of ἀνθρωπολάτραι.
The Apollinarians held that Christ was Θεὸς
σαρκοφόρος,
as Nestorians made Him ἄνθρωπος
Θεοφόρος, instead of
the proper Θεάνθρωπος.
Apollinaris said Christ is οὔτε
ἄνθρωπος
ἅπλος, οὔτε
Θεὸς, ἀλλὰ
Θεοῦ καὶ
ἀνθρώπου
μίξις. He denied the
complete human nature of our Lord, saying that the Logos supplied the
place of the anima rationalis. This stunted humanity could
not be accepted by the Church, as it would involve a merely partial
redemption. Christ must be a perfect man, in order to be a
perfect Redeemer. The heresy was opposed by St.
Athanasius, St. Basil, and others, condemned in synods at Alexandria
362, Rome 373 and probably 382, Antioch 378 or 379, and decisively at
Constantinople in the second œcumenical council. See
Dict. Chr. Biog.; Blunt, Dict. of Sects, etc.; Hefele on
Council of Constantinople; St. Gregory of Nazianzus’ Letters on
the Apollinarian controversy in this series, p. 437 ff.

1336 There can
be no doubt that St. Ambrose held what is known as the Real Presence in
the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and is here asserting the custom of his
day, viz., that Christ was worshipped as indivisibly God and Man in
that Sacrament. Similar expressions are to be found in other
Fathers, and in St. Ambrose elsewhere; e.g. De Fide, V.
10; De Mysteriis, §§ 52–54, 58. Bishop
Andrewes, formerly of Winchester (ob. a.d.
1626), refers to St. Ambrose as follows: “Nos vero et in
Mysteriis Carnem Christi adoramus cum Ambrosio, et non id, sed eum qui
super altare colitur. Nec Carnem manducamus quin adoremus prius
cum Augustino.…El Sacramentum tamen nulli
adoremus.” Resp. ad Bellarmin, p.
195.